The Borough – Maintaining

‘A Pristine Early American Elegance’

To the Editor:

How do you create and maintain what The New York Times has described the borough, “A Pristine Early American Elegance”? Well, first you have gifted forefathers with foresight and fortitude who in 1824 (two years before John Adams and Thomas Jefferson passed away) establish the Borough of Newtown. The founders recognized the uniqueness of its location and importance to the town as one of the first faces seen by travelers. Next, you need a tremendous number of dedicated volunteers who give countless hours, not for politics, but to maintain this unique jewel. A review of the Borough history reflects that some of Newtown’s most distinguished citizens served the Borough, Edmond, Beers, Glovers, the late Hon. T. Clark Hall, lieutenant governor and State Supreme Court Justice. Finally, you need to be blessed with volunteers who strive to keep the municipality at the forefront of current needs while micromanaging this special piece of living history. These volunteers provide thousands of hours of community service that would cost the town hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more.

A look at South Main Street north of Borough Lane and south of Borough Lane gives one a pretty good picture of what the town area would look like without the Borough. A look at other towns teaches what happens without a Borough and the micromanagement of a historic downtown area. Milford, Stratford, Trumbull all lost beautiful downtown historic areas to commercial development and residential sprawl. Contrarily, most people know of Litchfield and Bantam’s preserved elegant downtown historic areas; both are managed by Boroughs. Historic preservation is no accident, and the most effective tool is a municipal Borough that micromanages the area.

The Borough presently not only provides lighting, fire hydrant service, tree services, sidewalk maintenance, monument and public area maintenance, benches, but also includes rigorous zoning, health district participation, and an historic district. Historically, the Borough has been at the forefront of community services. It provided the first fire company, provided the first fire hydrants, the first lighting, the first zoning, the largest historic district; recently it enacted the first Village District zoning plan, and presently, the Borough is working on a strict eminent domain ordinance so all Borough residents can feel secure in their homes after the case of Kelo v. New London.

All this is on a shoestring budget. This year the Borough residents on average will see a 6 percent decrease in taxes (even after revaluation). This is because we were fortunate to receive unanticipated building fees. Historically, the average Borough mill rate has gravitated around 1.0. This year it is 0.61.

Borough volunteers come from nearly half of all residential streets throughout the square-mile Borough, not just the center of town.

Perhaps it’s best to close with what my 80-plus-year-old parents would say…my engineer father: if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it; my frugal mother: penny wise and pound foolish …is just foolish.

Thanks for reading.

Jim Gaston

Warden of the Borough

18 Main Street, Newtown                                                 May 28, 2008